Telescopes: Windows to the Universe

Telescopes collect light, letting us see objects too faint or distant for the naked eye.
The first optical telescope was built in the early 1600s by Hans Lippershey and later improved by Galileo.
Modern telescopes observe not just visible light but also radio, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays.
Radio telescopes, like the one at Arecibo, detect signals from distant galaxies and pulsars.
Space telescopes, such as Hubble and James Webb, avoid Earth’s atmosphere for clearer views.
The Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile uses adaptive optics to cancel atmospheric distortion.
Arrays like ALMA combine many dishes to act as a single giant telescope.
Telescopes helped confirm the expansion of the universe and the existence of exoplanets.
The largest optical telescopes today have mirrors over 30 meters wide.
From Galileo’s spyglass to modern observatories, telescopes have revolutionized our view of the cosmos.